Rail Transport Agency Director highlights modernisation of Georgia’s railway system at UN Session

Erekle Kezherashvili, the Director of the Rail Transport Agency of Georgia, highlighted the ongoing transformation of the country’s traditional railway system into a “modern, transparent, legislation-based, European” framework during a high-level workshop titled Improving the Performance of the Rail Sector in Geneva, Switzerland, the Agency said on Friday.

Speaking at the workshop, held between Wednesday and Friday as part of  the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s 78th Session of the Inland Transport Committee’s Working Party on Rail Transport, Kezherashvili reviewed the country’s railway sector and ongoing reforms. 

Our discussion covered the milestones achieved in the first phase of the reform, as well as our future plans [...] The ongoing reform will significantly enhance the sector’s efficiency and represent a major step forward. This progress will not only support the development of the Middle Corridor [logistics route] but also open up new opportunities for expanding our routes and continuing the upward trend in freight turnover”, he said.

The presentation also involved plans for developing high-speed railway traffic in Georgia and neighbouring Azerbaijan and Turkey, current trends in freight traffic growth, and contribution to the latter dynamic of  rising demand for the Middle Corridor route connecting Central Asia and China to Europe via the South Caucasus through Georgia.

The overall cargo turnover through land transport in Georgia reached 21 million tonnes by September, with the railway sector comprising about 44 percent of the figure, translating to 9.25 million tonnes, the body said. It added the performance “notably surpasses” the average European benchmark for railway transport.